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Reslizumab (recombinant anti-IL-5) for Eosinophilic Esophagitis

August 18, 2018 9:10 am

Reslizumab, a monoclonal recombinant antibody to interleukin-5 did not receive FDA approval for eosinophilic esophagitis. However, a recent report (J Markowitz et al. Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition: June 2018 – Volume 66 – Issue 6 – p 893–897) describes the outcomes of patients who entered the randomized control trial and continued to receive subsequently via open label extension (OLE, n=6) or through compassionate use (CU, n=4. This study provides data over 9 years of treatment.

Key findings:

Median eosinophil count dropped from 35 to 3
No serious adverse events were noted
Clinical features improved. For example, dysphagia dropped from 42% to 0% and vomiting dropped from 67% to 17%

My take: Though this is a small study, it shows that in selected patients disruption of the inflammatory pathways can result in significant clinical improvement.